


My Heart Went Boom

by MissKittyFantastico



Series: Down for the Count [6]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Budding Love, F/F, F/M, First Date, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 01:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7132523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissKittyFantastico/pseuds/MissKittyFantastico
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bayley didn't know what life had for her when she moved to Florida to chase her dreams. This is the story of how she fell in love a few times along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Heart Went Boom

**Author's Note:**

> When I started writing the stories, I always had in mind that I wanted to talk about just how Bayley met her partners in the first place. Each chapter will focus on one particular one in the order that they met. This chapter is specifically about her and Sami, but sit tight. There's more coming.
> 
> And yes, the title is specifically a reference to 'Helpless' from Hamilton.

 

The new guy played the same album every morning as he drove into the performance center. Loud thrashing punk. He sometimes even sat in his car and finished listening to a song, singing along in the few minutes before he had to go and get ready for training for the day.

Bayley did the same with Paramore some mornings. The two of them exchanged looks from their cars one morning, giving each other embarrassed kind of smiles for a split second before commencing a dance party in each of their cars. His song finished first, but he still smiled and waved at her before he walked in.

Bayley liked this guy already.

 

———

“He’s cute, right,” Bayley asked Emma, whispering as they stretched before starting the drills for the day.

“I don’t know,” Emma sighed. “I guess if you like gingers. Not my type, though.”

Bayley watched him as he stretched out by himself before Coach Sara blew her whistle. Bayley wasn't a girl who considered herself to have a “type,” but she couldn’t stop staring at this new guy.

Maybe gingers were her type.

 

———

Bayley tried to sit with him at lunch that day, but he was busy talking on the phone. A flurry of languages came from his mouth, a strange mix of English, French and… Arabic? It sounded like Arabic. It reminded her of the way her grandpa used to talk, substituting Welsh where it was appropriate, or how Spanish regularly peppered conversations every time she was home.

Still, it was rude to interrupt calls to tell some guy whose name she didn’t even know all of this.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

 

———

After an entire day of staring, Bayley finally broke.

“What do you listen to every day?”

The new guy stopped before he got in his car, looking confused. “I’m sorry?”

Bayley suddenly felt very self-conscious and looked down at her shoes. “You listen to the same album every day. I just… what is it?”

“It’s, uh, _White Crosses_ by Against Me. It’s a very… Florida album to me, if that makes sense.”

Bayley looked up to see him looking just as embarrassed, a pink flush crossing his cheeks. It was really cute, but Bayley wasn’t going to say that out loud. “I think so?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t been in a place for this long in a while. I think I just wanted to hear something that fit it.”

“I… well, you seem really happy listening to it every morning, so it must be working.”

“Thanks,” he laughed. “You seemed to be enjoying yourself this morning too… uh… I’m sorry, I don’t think I got your name yet?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, stumbling forward with her hand out. “I’m Bayley. Welcome to the Performance Center.”

He took her hand and shook it, smiling yet again with a twinkle in his eye. “Sami. Nice to meet you, Bayley.”

“Do you hug?”

“I… what?”

“Do you hug,” she asked again, extending her arms out. It occurred to Bayley she was taking the same sort of stance she would take with a stray dog, but Sami was the new kid. She already spent all day staring at him from across the room and working up the courage to talk to him. She didn’t think he noticed that bit, but she wasn’t about to make it MORE weird.

“Uh yeah, I d-“

Before he could even finish, Bayley wrapped Sami in the tightest hug she could manage. Sami was taken aback at first, which made Bayley come close to retreating back.

Then suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her in a big bear hug. One that was as strong as Bayley’s, but in a different way. It was like being surrounded in sunshine. It was like being…

_Home._

As Bayley broke away from the hug, she felt her heart speed up as she looked up at Sami. “Wow… you give good hugs.”

Sami looked down kind of embarrassed, but Bayley could see the smile at the corners of his mouth. “Thanks… I guess.”

The two stood in silence for a second. Bayley wanted to ask so many things. Like where he was from, what his family was like, what kind of music he listened to, what was his favorite movie, who was his first kiss, his opinions on the wrestlers whose pictures lined the hallways of the Performance Center…

Instead, she settled for hooking her thumbs in the strings of her backpack and waving at Sami. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah… I’ll see you.”

The two walked to their cars, no more words said as the Florida sun began to set. Bayley waited until Sami was out of sight to gently hit her head against the steering wheel of her car. “Smooth, Bayley. Real smooth,” she muttered before she turned on her car and her rushing thoughts were joined by Hayley Williams’ voice.

 

———

Bayley was ready to avoid Sami entirely the next day and pretend that the evening before was just a fever dream, but Sami was the first one to approach her.

“Hey! Bayley!”

She turned as she was about to walk into the Center, somewhat surprised to see him. “Hey Sami, I didn’t hear you drive up this morning!”

“Decided to go a bit more chill today, but I thought I might give you something.”

He handed Bayley a blank CD with the words “White Crosses” sprawled across the front in messy Sharpie handwriting. Bayley’s eyes went wide with surprise. “This is the album from yesterday!”

“Yeah… I don’t know. I thought you might want to give it a listen. If you end up hating it, I can take it.”

“No no no, I’m sure I’ll love it,” Bayley said as she excitedly turned the CD over in her hands. “Thank you!”

“You’re wel-“

Before Sami could finish, Bayley bounded at him for another hug. It crossed her mind that could be awkward, but Sami was quicker on the response and hugged her back.

Yep… Still like home.

 

———

Bayley listened to the album a few times after she got home to absorb it all.

It was raw, angry, and a bit sad at the same time. It felt like chest crushing humidity at some points, but crashing ocean waves at others. Bayley researched on her phone everything she could about the band as she listened.

They had started in Gainesville in 1997. The lead singer was named Laura Jane Grace. She was transgender. White Crosses came out in 2010. They had four albums before that.

She thought of the way Sami smiled, and the way his eyes lit up when he did.

Bayley kept the last track on repeat for what felt like hours.

 

———

“Well, what did you think?”

Bayley and Sami sat against the wall as they ate their lunch together. He looked at her with excitedly expectant eyes, waiting eagerly for her opinion.

“It was good,” Bayley said, her mouth full of salad. “A bit different from the stuff I usually listen to and it took me a few listens to really get it, but I liked it! Especially that last song…”

“‘Bamboo Bones’?”

“Yeah, that one! _So_ good.”

“Yeah, that one is my favorite too,” Sami admitted, looking down at his knees. “It just… it always felt relevant in a way. To me, at least.”

Bayley nodded sagely, thinking of the way Laura sang the song with such conviction. Like she was trying to convince herself of what she was saying as she was the listener.

 _What God doesn’t give to you, you have to go and get for yourself,_ sang Laura.

“I totally get that,” responded Bayley.

“So… um… do you think you’d want to listen to more of them,” Sami asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “Because I can totally bring you more.”

Bayley practically bounced as she nodded. “Totally! But only if I get to give you some of my music in exchange.”

“Deal.”

Bayley was ready for the two to shake on it, but Sami opened his arms for a hug to seal the deal. With a smile, she gently barreled into his arms from a seated position.

Maybe it wasn’t so weird after all.

 

———

For a month, the two traded albums back and forth and would sit and talk about them at lunch. Which then soon turned into talking about family, home, languages, and wrestling. Lunch never felt long enough with those conversations struck. The common ground of growing up loving wrestling and never being able to see yourself doing anything else. The way languages got mixed up in their tongues and brains. The silly stories of parents and siblings and indie wrestlers. Bayley never wanted them to end.

And maybe they didn’t have to…

“You got something on your mind, B?”

Bayley looked at Sami as he finished the last few bites of his lunch. She wasn’t really sure how to ask what she was thinking, but she swallowed and tried anyway. “Yeah… um… I’ve really been enjoying our lunch times together…”

“Oh no, are you breaking up with me,” Sami asked with a playful smile.

“Nonono, not at all,” Bayley blurted, feeling her face warm up as she did. “I mean, it’s the opposite. Kind of? Maybe? I…”

Sami’s playful look turned into concern as Bayley tripped over her words. “You okay, Bayley?”

“I’m great,” she said, nervously playing with her ponytail. “And this has been great. So… I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to go out to dinner sometime?”

A silence fell between the two as Sami looked at her with silent surprise. Bayley was stuck between wishing she could put the words back into her mouth or be swallowed up by one of those freak Florida sinkholes her mom told her so much about when she said she was moving to Orlando.

After a short eternity, Sami finally answered. “Go out to dinner? Like a date?”

“Yes? Maybe? I don’t know. I don’t want to call it that if you don’t want it to be. You know… just forget I said anything. Just kidding! Just Bayley being Bayley!”

Bayley tried to scramble away, but Sami very gently put his hand on her shoulder to stop her from doing so. “I would love to go out to dinner with you, B. And hey, maybe if it goes well enough, we can agree to call it a date after.”

He then gave her the most gentle smile she had ever seen and felt her insides turn into warm and happy goo. She smiled right back at him. “It’s a da- Deal. It’s a deal.”

 

———

It had been a minute since Bayley had been out on a date, let alone a date that wasn’t really a date. Still, if it was going to be declared a date later, she wanted to at least look nice. But not _too_ nice.

After she texted her fifth possible outfit to Emma, Bayley immediately received a call from the Australian. “Bayley, what are you even trying to do right now?”

“Well… I got a date? Kind of? We’re not calling it that unless it goes well though.”

Emma made a “mmhmm” noise, which Bayley knew as her skeptical noise. “You send any of these to Paige or Sasha?”

“I did, but you’re the only one responding right now.”

“And who is this date-not-date with anyway?”

“You’re going to laugh…”

“I won’t laugh,” Emma giggled. “I promise.”

“No, you’re going to laugh.”

“Try me, Bayley.”

Bayley took a deep breath, looking at herself in the mirror again. “With Sami,” she admitted slowly, unsure of the words in her mouth. This was the first time she said it out loud to someone else.

“Who?”

Bayley felt herself deflate a bit at that response. “Sami Zayn? He’s literally at work with us every day?”

“Ohhh,” Emma responded, the realization slowly dawning on her. “The ginger guy. Hey, didn’t you ask me if he was cute once?”

“Yes,” Bayley sighed, because she knew what was coming next. Emma was going to break her promise and laugh at her.

Instead, Emma cooed. “Awww, Bayley. That’s actually really cute! Congrats.”

“Yeah well, it’s not a date… maybe.”

“Go with the jeans and cardigan look,” Emma offered, a smile in her voice. “It’s super casual, but still really cute and very you. He’d be crazy not to call it a date if you look like that.”

Bayley smiled, hoping Emma could sense it on the other side. “You really think so?”

“Of course I do,” Emma replied assuredly. “You’re a catch, Bayley. Just be yourself and he’ll see it too.”

“Thanks, Emma.”

“You’re welcome. Bayley friends forever, right?”

It was Bayley’s turn to laugh at that one. “Absolutely.”

 

———

Paige and Sasha had agreed with Emma’s assessment via text about twenty and thirty minutes later respectively. Bayley had wondered if Emma had gotten around to them first, but she knew better not to ask questions in this situation.

Still, she hoped this would be a date because she put way too much effort to look this casual.

Right at 7, there was a knock on her door and Bayley felt her heart leap. “Okay Bayley, it’s now or never,” she whispered to herself as she walked over to the door. With a deep breath, she prepared her best smile as she opened the door and looked at Sami’s face. Before she could even say a proper hello, something caught her eye. “Oh my god, what is that hat?”

Sami’s eyes drifted up towards the hat on his head, which was a grey flat cap that Bayley was fairly certain one of her grandpa’s friends wore. He suddenly looked a little sheepish as he pulled slightly down on the brim of it. “I don’t know, I was just trying something new. I thought it looked nice.”

“I mean, you look like a sea captain,” Bayley said with a laugh as she reached out for the brim of it. “But a cute one.”

Sami looked at her with a twinkle in his eye and a sheepish smile. “So you’re saying I’m cute?”

Bayley’s heart leapt again, but she tried her best to play it cool, turning her face into the coolest smirk she could manage. “Maybe.”

Sami chuckled at that as he held his arm out to Bayley. “Well, can this maybe cute sea captain escort you on our not-date then?”

“Maybe,” Bayley said, her smirk slowly turning back into a smile as she took his arm.

“Do you say anything else?”

“Maybe,” Bayley laughed as she closed the door behind them. “You got the whole night to find out!”

“Or just now,” he retorted.

“Shhh, you’re taking the fun out of it!”

 

———

The date-not-date was _fine._

Nothing went wrong or awful. Sami was a perfect gentleman, somehow being effortlessly charming while constantly apologizing and being the nicest person ever to the waitress, who was feeling slightly overwhelmed during her second week on the job. If it was an actual date, Bayley would have scheduled a second one right this second.

Except it wasn’t a date… Maybe.

Because of that, it just felt like there was a wall of awkward the entire time between them. One that they couldn’t quite break through. Or maybe it was just her.

Bayley sighed as she scraped at the last of her dinner with her fork, trying to at least relish the sauce. Sami was in the middle of a story and she watched with a bit of sadness as he enthusiastically waved his arms around as he recounted. “So there I was, just pogo-ing…”

That immediately caught Bayley’s attention. “Pogo-ing? Like on a stick?”

“I mean, kinda,” Sami explained, shrugging. “I’m talking about jumping up and down like you’re on one.”

“Oh,” Bayley said, feeling kind of deflated. “I was hoping you were referring to actual pogo sticks. I don’t meet many other people who know how to use one.”

“Wait wait wait… _Other people_?”

Bayley looked up at Sami, seeing his wide eyed expression of wonder and disbelief. “Are you saying that you know how to use a pogo stick?”

“Yeah,” Bayley admitted, sitting up a little straighter and with pride. “And I’m damn good at it.”

Sami blinked at her for a second, which made Bayley nervous. Did he think that was weird? Then, he leaned in with a look that was somehow both mischievous and curious. “Can you show me?”

Bayley grinned and threw down her fork. “Take me back to my place. It’s about to go down.”

———

“Is this a good idea?”

Bayley looked around the parking lot of her apartment complex, lit by the orange incandescents of street lamps. She brought her pogo stick down from over her shoulder and leaned her weight on it a couple of times to make sure the spring was still good. “Oh yeah, it’s fine.”

“Still kind of dark though,” Sami mused, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Trust me, Sami. I’ve done this a million times,” she said as she positioned herself. “I could probably do it in my sleep.”

Before Sami could say anything else, Bayley jumped up onto the pogo stick and in one fluid motion began hopping around the parking lot. In terms of weird things she had done to try and impress a date, this was certainly up there. Still, as the stick creaked and sprung under her in rhythm and Sami followed her motions with a smile and a similarly rhythmic head bob, it became easy to lose herself in the motion. Especially when Sami started cheering. “Yeah! Go Bayley!”

Bayley smiled wider as Sami began to clap, but suddenly, her motion was broken. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like a rock under the rubber stopper. The balance tipped off and she felt herself beginning to tip sideways with no course correction. She let out a desperate yelp as she braced herself for impact.

“BAYLEY!”

Instead of hitting the ground, Sami ran forward and grabbed Bayley before she fell to the pavement. Bayley fell slack into his arms, trying to catch her breath as she heard her pogo stick hit the ground with a loud _clang!_ and a slight rattle.

“Bayley, are you okay,” Sami asked, his voice shaking with worry. “That looked really scary.”

“You rescued me,” Bayley breathed, finding her feet back on steady ground with Sami’s help. “I was about to bust myself on the pavement and you rescued me like some Disney prince.”

“Well, what kind of date would I be if I let you fall over like that?”

“So this _was_ a date?”

Under the street lights, Bayley could only barely make out the growing blush in Sami’s face as he looked down at her. “Well… I mean… I wasn’t sure if you were feeling it and I just…”

Before he could say anything else, Bayley stood on her tippy toes and held Sami’s face in her hands. “I want to kiss you like the world’s about to end right now, Sami. Is that okay?”

Sami’s eyes went wide for a second in surprise at how direct Bayley was with him, but he nodded at her question. With no hesitation, Bayley leaped forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and planting her lips on his. For a second, Sami didn’t react, which made her almost pull back.

Then, like the day they first met, he wrapped his arms around her in a big bear hug, pulling her closer as his lips met hers with a similar feverish energy. Under those incandescents, Bayley felt an electric jolt through her body. It felt like the first day of Summer and Christmas rolled into one. It felt like…

_Home._

As Bayley pulled apart from him, the two gasped as they looked at each other. Bayley then laughed as she stroked Sami’s beard. “Best first date ever?”

“Yeah, I think so,” he said with a most ridiculous grin.

 

———

_“You just need to find some place to get away._  
_You can forget your name._  
_And there's no need to apologize… apologize…”_

Bayley leaned her head against the frame of the open car window as the fresh breeze rolled in as Sami drove them to the Performance Center the next morning, listening to Against Me! pump through his car speakers.

“You know people are going to talk, right,” Sami asked as they turned down the street that lead to the building.

Bayley smiled to herself before she looked over at Sami. He had spent the night, that much was true. They didn’t have sex, but they made out a lot and spent most of the night talking about life, family, wrestling, and playing 20 questions. Sami made her heart do backflips, but also made it feel like it was in the safest place it could possibly be.

He let her fall asleep on him on her couch, and she woke up in his embrace. She was certain he must have felt similar about her if he did that.

“Let them.”

As they turned into the parking lot, Bayley looked back at Sami with a knowing smile. He grinned back at her as he found his spot and placed the car into park. He took her hand and held it over the gear shift, rubbing his rough hand against her knuckles as ‘Spanish Moss’ ended and ‘Rapid Decompression’ started with a fury. “Mind if I skip to the last song before we go in and the gossip train starts rolling?”

Track 10. ‘Bamboo Bones.’ Her and Sami’s favorite. “Not at all.”

With a kiss of her hand and a swift motion pressing the skip button without letting go, Sami started the next song. The guitars came in first before Laura, and Sami immediately began to sing along like he would the mornings they first met. This time however, Bayley joined him, their voices clashing against each other, but still somehow in harmony with their own time and universe. It was awful and perfect.

Between this and wrestling, Bayley could live like this the rest of her life.


End file.
